Bitter Chocolate: Anatomy of an Industry
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.12 (997 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 1595589805 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 336 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-04-21 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Hailed in hardcover as compelling” (Kirkus Reviews) and an astonishing and wrenching story” (The London Free Press), Bitter Chocolate is an eye-opening look at one of our most beloved consumer products. Tracing the fascinating origins and evolution of chocolate from the banquet tables of Montezuma’s Aztec court in the early sixteenth century to the bustling factories of Hershey, Cadbury, and Mars today, investigative journalist Carol Off shows that slavery and injustice have always been key ingredients.The heart of the book takes place in West Africa inside the Ivory Coast—the world’s leading producer of cocoa beans—where profits from the multibillion-dollar chocolate industry fuel bloody civil war and widespread corruption. Faced with pressure from a crushing cocoa cartel” demanding more beans for less money, poor farmers have turned to the cheapest labor pool possible: thousands of indentured children who pick the beans but have never themselves known the taste of chocolate.An astounding eye-opener that takes no prisoners” (Quill & Quire), Bitter Chocolate is an absorbing social history, a passionate investigative account, and a shocking and urgent exposé of an industry that continues even now to institutionalize misery as it indulge
"Powerful and un-biased" according to Carol. Researching the poor working conditions in third world countries, I thought this book would only give me the history of chocolate. Instead I discovered a comprehensive look at the abuses in the cocoa sector primarily in the Cote d'Ivoire. A combination of the developed countries demand for cheap chocolate, corrupt government, corrupt police and avaricious manu. Alan A. Elsner said Interesting expose of the cruelty behind our favorite dessert. This book is half history, half passionate condemnation of "Big Chocolate." As a chocolaholic myself, it did make bitter reading. Apparently, the international chocolate industry is fueled by the cruel exploitation of child labor in Africa. These children are treated no better than slaves. Others who are complicit in the many sins of this industry include the . "Exposing the dark and bitter side of a sweet industry" according to Adrenalin Streams. Chocolate is a wonderful product. It makes its consumer feel good and, at its most refined, is as capable of providing all the exquisite and subtle ranges of refinement and taste as fine wine. We associate chocolate with happiness, and yet all is not sweetness and light in the chocolate industry. With this book Canadian investigative journalist, Carol Off, dig
Off travels to the tropical Côte d’Ivoire, where the laborers who harvest cacao pods have never even tasted the final product into which they have poured their lifeblood. --Mark Knoblauch . From Booklist People in the First World consume chocolate with no qualms save what the confection might be doing to increase their waistlines. But, in fact, the manufacture of chocolate depends on its cultivation in Third World nations by citizens condemned to live in general poverty and with little control over their futures. Off describes the migration of the cacao tree from its Mexican homeland to West Africa, the land that now dominates its production. Off draws an even more sordid picture of the relationship between